By Dan O’Shea
If you have Jamaal Charles on your fantasy team, it’s a good bet that you not only made the playoffs, but will be playing for a fantasy league championship this weekend or next.
In the last four weeks, Charles has gone from very good to simply dominant, logging two 100 yards-plus rushing games, and just last week an historic fantasy performance: 5 TDs (four of them receiving) and 195 yards receiving.
In Week 16, Charles gets to face an Indianapolis defense that has fallen into the bottom half of league defenses is the second half of the season.
With another big stat line this week, Charles will make a pretty good argument to be the No. 1 overall fantasy pick next year. In fact, with this posting serving as the final Fantasy Fix football column until next season, it’s a good time to take a peek at my 2014 preseason top five (all subject to change until next summer, of course):
1. Jamaal Charles: I’ve been going back and forth on this and for awhile was considering Peyton Manning for the No.1 slot, but Charles is a dual threat and particularly potent in PPR leagues.
2. LeSean McCoy: Like Charles, another back with a system that showcases everything he can do. McCoy is probably also my comeback player of the year after his terrible 2012 outing.
3. Peyton Manning: His numbers have been a little blemished in recent weeks, but he’ll probably reach both 5,000 passing yards and 50 TDs this week with one more game still left. This is probably the highest I have ever ranked a QB pre-draft.
4. Matt Forte: He’s quietly having his best season, with the same essential skill set as Charles and McCoy, with more rushing yards than Charles and more receiving yards and TDs than McCoy.
5. Adrian Peterson: It’s suddenly trendy to assume he will be too broken down and too stuck in an inefficient offense next year to make much fantasy noise. Yet, even with injuries this year he still has more than 1,200 yards rushing and 10 TDs. Like I said, though, a lot can change before next year’s draft.
With that, we wrap up another season of Fantasy Fix. I’m taking a lengthy holiday break, but will be back in mid-January to begin sizing up what fantasy baseball has to offer. Happy Holidays!
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Dan O’Shea is our man in fantasyland. He welcomes your comments.
Posted on December 18, 2013